Railway tie



RAILWAY TIE lNvEN-ron ATTORNEYS F. l.. KLINGENSMITH Fileduuly 11, 1929 Dec. 16, 1930.

Patented Dec. 16, 193() FRANK Il. KLINGENSMITH, F DETROIT, MICHIGAN RAILWAY TIE Application tiled July 11, 1929,. Serial No.v 377,578.

gally, that is by providing a suitable mold l and support therefor and then rotating the mold at a high rate of speed with the cement mixture in the mold, thus compacting. and forming the mixture to conform to the interior of the walls of the mold by centrifugal y force. In forming a tie in this manner, alon- Vgitudinally extending opening is formed 1n the tie by the centrifugal action which throws the plastic mixture outwardly from the axis of rotation toward the mold walls, and this opening, in the present method is utilized to assist in anchoring the rails and their seats in place upon the tie byvmeans extending through a wall of the tie'with the securing means therefor located within this longitudinal opening in the tie. The tie therefore provides a convenient arrangement of 'structure whereby the rail seats and rails may be readily and removably secured in place thereon.

A tieform'ed by the centrifugal method may also be provided with suitable reinforcing means placed within the mold and held in proper relation thereto prior to the introduction of the mixture into the mold. The centrifugal action therefore firmly embeds this reinforcement in the tie, increasing the reinforcing action of such reinforcement and such reinforcement does not in any way interfere with or retard the forming of the tie.

An object of the present invention is to provide a form and construction of tie which may be readily formed and is particularly adapted to be formed by the centrifugal method. A further object is to provide a tie with a longitudinal opening extending inwardly from the ends thereof for the *purpose of reducing the weight of the ti-e and at the saine time providing a tie of f great strength, the central opening further facilitating the securing to the tie of meansfor anchoring the rail and its seat to the tie and providing for the ready manipulation thereof 'in securing the rail in place. It is also an object to provide a construction and arrangement of tie reinforcement which is particularly adapted to the centrifugal method of forming the tie and ,which reinforcement adds greater strength tothe tie/due to the fact ,that it lis firmly embedded therein at every point th'roughoutits length, and intimately united with the body of the tie which is compacted with great force around the reinforcement by the centrifugal action in the forming of the tie. i

It is also an object to provide a tie having other new4 anduseful features, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

With the above and other ends inview, the invention consists in the matters set forth in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which- Figure 1 is aside elevation, partly in longitudinal section, of a tireillustrative of an embodiment of the present invention; f Fig. 2 is a ,plan viewof the same ,and

F ig. 3 is a transverse vertical section substantially upon the line 3 3 of Fig. l.

r,In the drawing, l indicates the body of J the tie which is formed of a suitable cementitious material, which body, as-shown, is of rectangular form in cross section, but it will be understood that any desired form ma be produced embodying the features of the present invention. In order to mold this body a suitablemold(notshown) is provided, said mold having an' interior configuration conforming to the desired exterior configuration of the tie to be produced, `and this mold is supported in any convenient man-` ner sothat it vmay be rotated inthe desired position with" comparatively high velocity wth the cementitiousV material within the mold.

As.V the tie vis formed by the centrifugal method,it will have a longitudinally extending axial opening 2, open through the ends of the body, and if found desirable, the body may-be reinforced and strengthened by a suitable reinforcement of metal, said reinforcev ment preferably consisting, as shown, of a series of rods 3 extending longitudinally of 4the body and of slightly lesserlength than the length of the body so that the body will metal reinforcement is thus provided with the longitudinal rods formingv the main element of reinforcement and the transverse rods serving mainly to hold the longitudinal rods in spaced relation.

The fabricated reinforcement thus provided forms a sheet or layer of considerable width which is preferably bent asv shown, intov rectangular forni with a narrow space between the sides and bottom of the body andv this reinforcement. At the top of the body the two end portionsof the fabricated reinforcement or the parts 5 and 6 thereof, are overlapped and spaced a art inwardly of the body so that two runs o this reinforcement are embedded within the upper part of the body of the tie where the greatest strength is re uired.

ecause ofthe particular form of fabricated reinforcement, this reinforcement may be readily set in the mold in which the tie body is formed, prior to the forming of the tie by rapid rotation of the mold, with plastic material `therein and the reinforcement held in spaced relation to the interior surfacesof the mold in any suitable manner, so that this plastic material will be forced into every crack and crevice ofthe reinforcement and solidly against the mold walls. This aXial opening 2 thus formed, may be of any desired size in cross section accordingto the cross sectional/size of the tie and said opening will preferably open through the ends ofthe tie,

therefore producing a tie which ishollow at least throughout a. large portion of its length. Preferably the interior surface of the mold will be provided with a projection, which projcctionY will form a notch or notches `7 in one side of thetiebodv, these notches beine' PrO vided to receive asuitable seating block 8v for the raill 9. This block 8 may be of wood or other suitable material which is slightly resilient and is firmly held against escaping from beneath the rail bythe slight end wall or shoulder 10 of the notch and by the side walls or ribs 11, said ribs preventing the block from moving longitudinally of the rail and the shoulder 10 engaging the outer side of the block. Y l 7 is of ygreater length in the direction of the length of the tie, than the width of the ,block so, that by loosening the. means at the inner sideof the railwhich holds the rail and block in place, `said bloclr may be moved alongthe notch from lbeneath the lrail and a new block slippedI into Vplace without the. necessity for removing the entire rail and all fastening nieafnstherefor. c I j v'Qpeni'ngs are providedf'in the top wall of Itwill be noted that the notch.

the body 1 which open into the bottom of each notch or groove 7, these holes extending through the wall into the longitudinal opening 2 of the body, and these vertical holes are provided to receive bolts 12 for securing suitable clips or rail fasteners 13 to the upper side of the tie in spaced apart relation to receive between them the base of the rail, each clip having a lateral fiaiige 14 to engage over the base flange of the rail and hold the rail in place upon the blocltS. The outer or upper ends of these bolts may be provided with the usual heads 15 and their inner ends screwthreaded to receive nuts 16 and washers 17 which are located within the opening Q. The washers-17 may each have a. curved base as shown in Fig. 3, to seat against andA conform to the curvature ofthe wall of the opening 2, said wall preventing rotation of the washer due to such curvature of its uppersidc, when the bolt is turnedtofirmly clampl the clips 13 Yupon-thetieA at eachside of the rail.

Ttiis the usual practice tosea'ttlie rails 9 at avery slight inward inclination so vthat they will 4better take the lateral thrust of the car wheels and have less tendency to spread apart or tilt outwardly, and it will be noted that the bottoms of the notches 7 are inclined slightly, inwardly in the direction of the length of the'tie and ytoits upper surface.

Therefore, ther cushion blocks 8' which are seatedin these notches upon the inclined bottom surfaces thereof, have a like inclination4 to support the rails iii a slightly inwardly inclined position. i

Gbviously other means than'the bolts and clips shown, may-be provided for'securiug the rails to the ties,'b`ut usuali great difficulty is encountered in,providingfsuitable' ways of anchoring the fastening means firmly to cement ties'with sufficient security to insure them against working loose under the jar and strains 'to which they aresubjec'ted in use. but where theftie is formed as vin the pre: yit structure, 'with an axial opening 2, this opening will alwaysV provide means whereby the securing means maybe rigidly anchored tothe tie'and made readily accessible for itsapplication to or removal there# from. means may or may not be employed and that other forms of reinforcement than theone shown may be used if found desirable. VIt is furtherobvious that the notches inthe upper side yof the tieto receive the seating blocks for the rails. may also be omitted and the blocks heldy inplace between the devicesprovided for securing the rails to the tie. These several. changes and modifications are contemplated, vandallY such as fall withinthezscope of the appended claims may bemade without departing 'from the spirit of the, invention.

' Having thhS fully described' my invention, n-'hatl clamisi i i l vl. A railway me! Including. Va,V *bodyl fom-ile it' is also obvious that reinforcing fl ic of cementitious material with a longitudinal opening formed by rapidly rotating the body while the material is in a plastic state, said opening being open through the ends of the body, a metal reinforcement in said body firmly embedded therein during said' centrifugal formation of said vbody and means for securing rails and blocks in place upon the body, said means including members eXtending through the wall of the body and reinforcement with their inner ends within the longitudinal opening in the body.

2. A railway tie formed of a cementitious material by a' spinning method to provide 1:: an opening in the interior thereof, and a fabricated metal reinforcement embedded in said tie around the opening therein during rotation in centrifugally forming the tie, said reinforcement comprising longitudinal and transverse rods forming a sheet or layer bent longitudinally into rectangular form in cross section, said reinforcement being spaced from the bottom and sides of the'mold in which the tie is formed, with the ends of the sheet in overlapping and spaced relation at the top of the mold to provide inwardly spaced apart layers of reinforcement within the upper side of the tie. Y

3. A railway tie having a hollow body formed of cementitious material by a spinning method with longitudinally extending depressions in the upper surface of the body, the bottoms of said depressions being inclined longitudinally of said body, and a fabricated metal reinforcement embedded in said Y tie during centrifugal formation thereof, blocks forming rail seats seated in said depressions and held therein by marginal portions around said depressions, saiddepressions being of greater length longitudinally of the body,than the width of said blocks, bolts passing through openings in the upper wall of the body into the hollow interior thereof and at the opposite sides of ,5 said blocks, clips on the upper ends of said bolts having lips to engage over a rail flange,

and nuts on the inner ends of said bolts within the interior of said body, said nuts being accessible through the open ends of the body.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FRANK L. KLINGENSMITH. 

